After slots this fall at Desertfest Belgium and ThElectriCool festivals and a summer spent at Duna Jam, Lake on Fire festival, Burg Herzberg, Stoned from the Underground and more, German heavy psychedelic forerunners Colour Haze have announced a Dec. 15 CD release for their new album, To the Highest Gods We Know, through guitarist/vocalist Stefan Koglek‘s long-running Elektrohasch Schallplatten imprint, with vinyl to follow on Feb. 23, 2015. Koglek, bassist Philipp Rasthofer and drummer Manfred Merwald will mark the occasion with a European tour, the dates for which are forthcoming.

To the Highest Gods We Know is comprised of five tracks totaling in about 40 minutes of new music from Colour Haze, who have emerged as one of European heavy psychedelia's most influential groups. It was recorded to 2? tape at the band's own Colour Haze Studio in their native München with production and engineering by Koglek and Charly Bohaimid, and mixed analog on 1/4? tape by Koglek. It arrives just two years after 2012's expansive She Said (review here) and following reissues of earlier albums, 2000's CO2 and 2001's Ewige Blumenkraft (review here), and finds the perpetually progressive trio delving further into and beyond ideas presented on the last album, incorporating arrangements of flutes, strings, horns and nature sounds amid their own tonal warmth and vibrant live performance.

The striking cover art for the album was handled by Cherry Choke guitarist/vocalist Mat Bethancourt and his The Speed of Light design company, and the vinyl for the record is being cut today, Dec. 4, at Pauler Acoustics in Northeim. With familiar refrains in 'Paradise,' a gripping tonal gorgeousness in 'Call' and perhaps the band's boldest sonic experiment to date in 'To the Highest Gods We Know,' the record is both in conversation with She Said and moving forward from it. Of course, that album was plagued with technical trouble and took years to get out as the band constructed Colour Haze Studio, but if the audio on To the Highest Gods We Know is anything to go by, Colour Haze are ready to leave their woes behind and continue their creative journey, wherever it may take them.